Sunday Night Mind Dump

Wow. I have really enjoyed One Prayer. Part of me wishes we had one more week. There was another great message I wanted to bring you. It was a little tame by Real Life standards but, still really good. Through One Prayer we helped start 500 new churches and support David Blessing and I am really glad. Our prayer is that we would be able to become a monthly supporter of Davids in the not too distant future. So Lets dump!

• One Prayer flat out rocked. Perry Noble is one of the best preachers ever. He had our congregation in the palm of his hand today and he wasn't even here! How cool is that.
  
• The band sounded awesome today. Aaron kicked butt leading worship. I couldn't be prouder to have him leading our band.
• The coffee shop look is coming together. We are going to do some decorating to help accent it. It's gonna be sweet.
• I have an AWESOME wife. Most of you never see the stuff she does for me and the church. Being married to me I'd say I got the better deal!
• The kids are going to be doing a new curriculum starting next week. It sounds really cool.
  
• Went to see Sanctus Real tonight. They were great. I got to see a ton of friends from my old church which was really nice. Most of those guys I haven't seen for three years since we left to plant Real Life.
• I have got to seriously practice for next week. I am filling in for Tim and I am not a lead guitar player at all. Acoustic check, Bass check....lead....not so much.
• I am really ready to get back to teaching but I have one more week to go. You are going to love next weeks teacher. I sure do.
• We have a ton of prayer requests this week. Be sure to lift up Tony Trezzo's family for his parents health issues, Susan DePriests Dad for a healing from his motorcycle accident (some really serious injuries here), and Aaron Hammitts family on the death of his grandfather.

Love you guys....

Lord, Make Us Dangerous!

This weekend we close out our One Prayer series. The message this week is going to come from Perry Noble. His One Prayer for the church is Lord, Make Us Dangerous. I love that prayer. If there is one thing the church as a whole generally is....it sure ain't dangerous. We can be religious, stuffy, boring, old fashioned, out of touch, unkind, uncaring, and unconcerned but, dangerous isn't a word we associate with the church (except of course the more kooky ones that play with snakes!)

We need to become more dangerous. We live in a world where we are playing it safe and doing the things that tickle our ears while the rest of the world is on the fast track to a place called Hell. We cannot allow that to happen. We need to step up to the plate and refuse to allow our personal preferences in worship, dress, history, and everything else churchy to get in the way of our reaching out to those in our sphere of influence.

There was a time in my life when I was very passionate about the way we did church. I was proud of our heritage and thought that others were missing out because we had something they didn't have. While part of me still thinks that they are missing out, I am not quite as proud about it. To be honest there isn't time to be proud about it and I'd rather not worry about what the already convinced are "missing out on.' I'd rather concern myself with working to reach people that are not yet convinced.

I pray along with Pastor Perry that we would indeed become a dangerous people. We would be willing to step up and step out. We'd be willing to cast aside our restraint and go after the one that got away. We'd forget about our preferences and concern ourselves with the preferences of those who do not yet know Christ because at the end of the day that is where he'll be. Reaching out to those people that no one else wants to reach.

Phase 1 Complete

Welp! We did it. We are finished with all the painting and border trim at the church. It looks pretty sweet! We still have some decorating issues to complete the coffee shop transformation but we are looking good.

I was gonna post some pictures but I figured you'd all see the place on Sunday. I might be persuaded to post pictures if more people start emailing me questions for the Mythbuster series! We have some good ones so far but not quite enough to last a month.

We are known

I was just reading a blog entry from another pastor. He and his wife were on vacation and the gal at the front desk of the hotel noticed his name and said to him "hey you're a pastor aren't you." He made the comment that little things like that helped him to realize that he is always on duty even when he is away from his church. He needs to be careful to reflect Christ in a positive light at all times because people are watching.

That notion got me thinking about how true that really is. People know we are Christians and they are watching. They are watching to see if they can classify us as yet another hypocritical Christian. After all, that is the easiest thing to do right? To view us as changed and authentic might challenge what they believe about us.

My challenge for each of you is to live an authentic life everywhere and at all times. We need to demonstrate we are followers of Christ by showing the fruits of his life in us. Love, patience, understanding, compassion, and grace. If you want to rock your world strive to live a life that is different. Love people as Jesus would love them

Coffee House Tansformation

The transformation process of turning our main sanctuary area into more of a coffee house setting is almost complete. We have the walls and trim painted. Tomorrow we are going to hang some crown molding and do some touch up as needed and it'll all be done but the clean up! I have to say it looks really nice. We can thank Tara and Tracy for their good taste in picking out the color scheme.

I can't wait for everyone to see it on Sunday! See you all then!

Chillin

I took yesterday just to chill. I tried to do as little as possible. I watched a movie, played on the computer, and did a little yard work. Over the summer I am trying to take one day a week and not think, talk, or do any church related work.

Whenever I take a day away I come back with much more in terms of focus. Today, I am sitting down and doing some writing for our series next month on Worship. I am, as with every series, pumped up about it. I have wanted to teach on worship for some time.

Mythbusters

We are going to be doing a series in September called MythBusters. The whole series is going to be geared around answering your questions about God, Theology, and church. In order to make it work I really need your questions. The plan is to take the top 20 questions and turn those into the message. Please email them to me or fee free to leave them as a comment on this blog. You do not have to be an attender of Real Life, or of any church for that matter, in order to ask the questions. Feel free to ask friends and family! Also, feel free to leave the questions anonymously! I know some of you are probably thinking I would call you out in church or something over the questions but I promise I won't.

I will make sure I tell you what questions are going to be addressed a week before so you'll know when yours are coming up. I will not be able to get to every question as a part of the series but I will try to address the ones I cannot in some other way. Perhaps even on this blog!

Let's get them coming! I need a little prep time if this is going to work well!

Sunday Mind Dump

Nice service today. The place is really looking great after the paint. I smell coffee. Think the idec coffee is going to be a huge hit. Everyone was thanking me for making it but they should be thanking Tara because she is the one who told me how to do it. Pretty soon we'll be ditching juice and feeding the kids the stuff!

• Steven Furtick did an awesome job teaching. Man, God is using him big time.
• The band was really solid today.
  
• One little glitch with the web cast. If you're looking for the message give me a few days and I will get it on their.
• We are going to do a second painting day Tuesday at 7pm. If you missed today you still have a chance!
• We collected our One Prayer offering today. I am blown away! I am not going to tell you how much it was. I'll save that for next weekend.
  
• Thank you to everyone who stayed and painted!
• Tim. Loved the new intro to Come Together. I wish I'd have got a chance to play it since it was my idea!
  

I love leading Real Life. You guys really are awesome!

Tonight

I am really excited about tonight. Tonight we are taking our worship team to Allen Park MI to lead worship at Grace Church. This is a big moment for them. Most worship teams don't get the chance to get out and play before people that are not a part of their church. We also get to sit down and have a meal together afterwards.

Almost makes me wish I were back to playing in the band again. Almost!

One Prayer - Missions

This weekend we'll take up a special offering for One Prayer's missions effort. This is a first for us. Being newer seeker friendly coffee house style church we don't usually say much about "the offering" It's just not part of who we are. Our people support us and we have never had to do without. God has really blessed us in that regard. We have never once fallen below budget!

Once and a while an opportunity comes along that is just so awesome you cannot say no. This is one of those opportunities! Through One Prayer we are partnering with 1500 other churches and combining our resources to accomplish something special to plant and fund 500 new churches in China, Cambodia, Sudan, and India. A single church wouldn't make a dent in trying to do something so large but together we not only can but will be able to tackle this project.

The great thing about this project is that 100% of all the funds go directly to the project. How often can we say that happens!

Please pray about how you can help.

Big Changes

We are getting ready to make the transition into the full on look and feel of a coffee house. That means painting and decorating. We are starting the process this Sunday after church. If you'd like to pick up a brush and help feel free to stick around. Real Life will provide the pizza and paint.

Survey

I have to admit I am a little floored by the current results of the survey. More people seem to be preferring church before 10 am. Wow. Where are all you morning people coming from? Trezzo better get busy trying to even up the votes or he'll have to come to church even earlier.

Ok...I am just teasing about that last part.
We are not changing service times. At least not until we have to add additional services.

How Do They Do It?

This last week has been a royal pain. Two weeks ago Friday, the storms that passed through fried my DSL modem and my Wireless router. We went a few days without internet and that was almost killing us. Leading a church, everyone emails us stuff and we would have to run over to the church to try and respond. So, I figured with gas at 4 bucks a gallon I'd have dial up set up for a week and at the very least I could communicate with people in my unmentionables at my house (like God intended!)

Dial up nearly caused me to have a nervous break down! It is so stinking slow. My computer tied up all the time. I lost the connection at least three times a day. If I was a drinker it would have been Miller time. Today at roughly 10 am my world began to fall back into order when the nice man from Buckeye Cable came and took away the bad DSL modem (which by the way is very much a part of the Axis of Evil) and hooked up a much faster modem that has brought a time of peace and stability back into the Renner household. I just completed the last of the technology puzzle by getting my wireless router up and running.

If April was home from work she'd say that all this calls for a cookie. I think, as usual, she's right. All this does call for a cookie. Sleep well world. Sleep well.

Monday Night Mind Dump

Ok...normally this is done on a Sunday but since we left town right after church and had no computer access I thought I'd dump tonight. Here Goes:

• I personally am digging the One Prayer series. I love it when churches work together.
• Just wondering what everyone is fasting for one prayer? Are you spending extra time with God in prayer?
• I have been on dial up for the last week and its killing me. New cable modem is coming tomorrow.
• We had a great leadership retreat this weekend. Spent about 3 hours today talking church stuff and made some great progress and decisions.
• Yesterday was our first full web cast. Hopefully it sounds and looks good. We dedicated a channel on our soundboard to it...I'd love some feedback.

Yesterday I asked for your church and theology questions for our Myth Busters series. LEt's get them coming in!

One Prayer

I am really enjoying seeing the cool things that God is doing across the country with One Prayer. For me, this is something that I have personally prayed about over the last year. The notion that churches would begin the process of seeing themselves more as co laborers and less as competitors. One prayer is helping us do just that.



The hardest part of giving our One Prayer message last weekend was actually having just one One Prayer. I mean, really, did Craig expect we'd only have one? Not, really! Which is why we get to spend a whole month on it.



The next three messages we are going to partake in are ones that are from my heart just as much as if I'd been teaching them. In fact, I struggled about extending the series and adding one more but I decided four was enough and that God had already given me a clear picture about where we were going in July anyway. So, what's coming up? This weekend we are going to hear from Gary Lamb. He is the lead pastor at Revolution Church in Canto Ga. His message is called Lord, Make us Revolutionary. Next week, we'll here from pastor Steven Furtick. His One Prayer is called Lord, Make us Audacious. We'll close out the series with pastor Perry Noble. His One Prayer is Lord, Make us Dangerious.

I have already seen the messages and they are awesome. All I can say is get ready to have your spiritual world rocked.

Sunday Mind Dump

Today was one of those days were Satan was working big time against us. We had a host of issues this morning, and for that matter this weekend. Most of them, no one saw but they were there. We still had a nice turn out for one prayer and I am really excited about the series getting under way. Next week, we are going to hear from Gary Lamb from Canton Ga. His message is great and I can promise you they get better each week. So Lets dump:

• Our first live go at web casting and it went off. I won't say without a hitch because there was a hitch but it worked. We think we have the hitched fixed for next week.
• Our Theme song is Third Day's Come Together this week. The band rocked it out.
• Felt nice having most of the people back this week. Last week we felt rather empty.
• The Panera is awesome in the morning. We are able to give away most of it!
• We have some great tech stuff on the horizon. thank your local tech guy Trezzo.

Great start. See you all soon. My internet is out for the week at home so I'll be a little slow with email over the next week.

Idle Words

I was reading another pastors blog the other day and he had a post talking about how other pastors were trashing him and he was really conflicted about what to do. The fleshly side of him wanted to make his case and defend himself. The Biblical side of him said let it go. He sided with the Biblical side noting that he would have to give an account for every idle word.

I think there is a lesson here for all of us. We need to remember that we too will have to give an account for our idle words. When someone says something about you how do you handle it? Do you lash out or do you allow your actions to speak for you

The key here is to learn to be careful about what you say. Don't say things about other people in anger or in retaliation. I have made a the decision that I am not going to have anything negative to say about another person in ministry. Doesn't mean I agree with everything they are doing it just means I am not going to talk about it.

Updates

Got the internet up and running and we did a test web cast weds night and it went off without a hitch. We should be going live this weekend.

We're up and running.

Got the very fast high speed internet connection installed at church today. That is a good thing. Here is what we are working on. We have been test running several ways of web casting our services. Working on different cameras and connections. We think (ok I think) we have that part down so the next step was we needed a fast connection so we can stream out. We are targeting the first Sunday in July as our go date for being live. So, people will be able to worship with us live via the web from anywhere in the world at 10:45 Sunday mornings. We are also going to work on an archive system so people will be able to go to past messages in the even they were not in church or should they want to send it to a friend.

It's going to be sweet!

Prayer Time

Today was a great day for me. I spent some extended time in prayer over at church this morning. I prayed for me and my family but I also spent some extra time praying for each person who calls Real Life home. I started with the band and prayed at the spot they play and sang. I prayed for their gifts, their families, and their health. I also went around the sanctuary and prayed for every person by name.

I am really looking forward to spending some extended time in prayer and study this summer. I am going to start by taking Thursday and Friday from all church stuff! I am going to take those days and just chill. Maybe do something fun. After that it's go time.

Last Day

Today was my last day of teaching. I got a pleasant surprise when a student I wasn't expecting to pass showed up for the exam with all his make up work complete and ready to take the test. Sometimes, students really exceed the expectations we have for them. That is always cool to see.

Enjoy your summers kids. The next school year will be rolling around in 86 short days. (Not that I'm counting or anything.)

Sunday Mind Dump

What a great worship experience today. I just had an awesome time. Last night, we did our Men's Texas Hold Em tournament and we had a great group of guys come and hang out. We ate tons of manly man food and watched the Red Wings beat the Flyers. How much better does a party at church get than that? Today we talked about what Christian Maturity looks like and what is expected of us. We used the Jesus model of starting people at "come and listen or come and see" and gradually increasing the stakes in our commitment until we get people ready to "take up their cross and follow." It was a great time and I really think that as people process what they heard today they'll begin to relate better to people in life and at church. So lets dump:

• The band sounded killer today. As a musician, I know when things are tight. They were tight. Awesome job to each of the guys and April too.
• Still working on live web casting. The target is July. It's a process not a one time event when you are working on something big like that. Tony is awesome and he's got it covered.
• It's so cool getting the Panera free stuff every week. Not only is it great for church, I love helping our families with having great bread and bagels throughout the week.
• Next week starts One Prayer I am pretty passionate about it. I love it when the church as a whole works together. Good things are going to happen. I have spent hours screening the messages and had two that were in for sure, and two others I was trying to choose between. Now I know how the American Idol judges feel :)
• Happy birthday to Shelly Myers, Mat Trezzo, and Noah Stone Jr.
  

Have a great week. Summer is here and we're going to be making some major changes to how we do things. These changes won't be noticed by people outside of our leaders but they will change the way we are structured and the way we do things. I am really looking forward to them. We are going to start working on them at our Leadership Retreat in a few weeks. That is going to be a great time.